Radio Atlantic, IA – AM 1220

Riverside, Harrah’s, Horseshoe Casinos all pay fines

January 14th, 2012 by Ric Hanson

The Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission hit the Riverside Casino with a 20-thousand dollar fine this week for allowing an underage person to get onto the gambling floor. It was the second recent violation for the facility. General manager Dan Franz spoke to the commission. “We certainly regret that this happened, we take it very seriously, we take our responsibility to maintain the integrity of the gaming floor very seriously. And quite frankly to be up here again the second time within a year regarding a violation, we’re embarrassed by that, and don’t feel good about it at all,” Franz said. Franz says this case was a simple mistake as the minor had a paper I-D and it couldn’t be scanned by the security officer.

Franz says the man looked at the I-D and immediately started looking at the height and weight listed and missed the date of the person’s birth. “There’s really not other excuse for it, other than he made a mistake,” Franz said. Riverside also paid a 20-thousand dollar fine for the first instance, and would have to pay 30-thousand dollars if there is another problem before April. The Racing and Gaming Commission also fined Harrah’s Casino and the Horseshoe Casino, both in Council Bluffs, $3,000 each for allowing someone who had banned themselves from gambling to enter the casinos. Commission administrator Jack Ketterer says the casinos have to be vigilant in preventing people who “self exclude” themselves from gambling.

“People do that all the time, and there’s not any way for the licensees to catch all these people, but what we do want them to do is when they have a taxable jackpot….that they compare that person’s name with the name on the self exclusion list and their Social Security number,” Ketterer said. He says these two casinos did not catch the self exclusions and allow the people to collect jackpots. Any jackpot over 12-hundred dollars requires identification before it can be paid out.